Pine Trees And Gold Coins
by Anjupear
Summary: When Holly Short finds out about a journal that contains evidence of the People's existence, the LEP are happy to find and destroy it. The owners, however, aren't as eager to give it up...
1. Chapter 1

**Fanfiction! Alright, let's do this. I recently noticed there were no Artemis Fowl/Gravity Falls crossovers, and this struck me as a tragedy. So I decided to write one!**

 **(Okay, I woke up at 3 in the morning, and this idea wouldn't get out of my head. But that's close enough, right?)**

 **Anyway, this is my first-ever fanfic, so please review! I could use all the pointers I could get.**

It was supposed to be an ordinary mission. It was supposed to be short and smooth. It was supposed to be _simple,_ for crying out loud.

But, D'arvit, nothing seemed to go right around Holly Short, did it?

Apparently, some weird things had been happening in a tiny town called Gravity Falls. Random attacks from suspicious creatures, locals acting berserk, and some really odd energy readings (or so Foaly told her). The LEP didn't want to risk losing an officer, so the orders were to scout around the town, look for anything suspicious, nothing dangerous. Holly had soared over and around the city, looking for anything odd. But it's hard to find something when you don't know what it looks like, what it does, or if it even exists. Holly had tired of flying around the city in the summer heat, and so touched down in the nearby woods, hoping to find a source of clean water.

And that's when this monstrous creature had started trying its very best to rip Holly to shreds.

It was as big as a troll, but colored a swampy green with spikes jutting out of its back, and… were those mushrooms on its shoulders? The creature roared and swiped at Holly's helmet, leaving thin grooves on the slick coating. She dived out of the way of the other huge paw and drew her Neutrino, flicking the knob on the side up. Now there was enough power coursing through the gun to send this creature running for its mommy. She shot directly at the creature's chest, but it was faster than looks would imply. Dodging the beam, it cut off a large branch from a nearby tree with razor-sharp claws and swung at the captain with its makeshift weapon. But Holly ducked out of the way in the nick of time, and the creature staggered, suddenly overbalanced by the missed blow. Smiling, Holly shot the creature in the back a few times. Just enough to send a message, not enough to harm it. It started at the sudden pain, and ran back off into the forest. But unfortunately, now it had no use for the branch, and so proceeded to throw it…

...Right at Captain Holly Short.

Now she was stuck, pinned underneath the gargantuan branch, and praying that these woods didn't contain any humans.

But, apparently, the universe just hated her today.

Holly had barely started to heal her injuries when she heard the whistled song that echoed through the forest. Cursing under her breath, Holly hissed into the whisper-sensitive mike attached to her helmet.

"Foaly. I'm pinned under a branch, and a Mud Girl is coming. I hate to say it, but I could really use some centaur genius right now."

A whinny sounded over the comms. "Whoa, don't look at me. Genius I may be, but I'm not all-powerful. This is one heck of a situation you've gotten yourself into."

Internally, Holly groaned. The paperwork itself would take weeks, and Internal Affairs was going to have a field day. "Yeah, yeah. But what am I supposed to do?"

Foaly hummed for a minute as he thought of potential plans. "Well, my best advice would be to stay quiet, and don't show your face. Apparently these woods are populated with all sorts of strange creatures, so maybe she won't notice you, or care."

"Hello? Hello?" The calls were getting closer, and even Captain Holly Short, the fearless legend, was beginning to feel a bit stressed.

"With the luck I've been having today, the chances of that are exactly zero." Holly muttered, but quickly stopped when the Mud Girl called out.

"Hello? I heard fighting over here, and a gremloblin just ran off, so- oh!"

Holly felt a bead of sweat trickle down her forehead as the Mud girl addressed her.

"Hi! My name's Mabel. What's yours?"

Silence.

"Huh. Can you, like, not speak, or…" The Mud Girl, Mabel, paused for a second. "Wait. You're really short. And that's not any outfit I've ever seen before…" Then she gasped as realization hit her full in the face. "Oh my gosh, don't tell me. You're an elf!"

"What?" Holly blanched as Mabel threw out the secret that the People had worked so hard to protect.

Foaly was muttering in the Ops booth as well. "How is that possible? The only Mud Men on record that weren't mindwiped after dealing with the People are Fowl and the Butlers. And there's no records anywhere of this girl." Foaly spoke as his fingers flew across the keyboard, searching old records of interactions between Mud Men and the People.

However, their questions were answered as Mabel continued blabbering on. "I've never actually seen one, but the pictures in my brother's journal always looked so amazing! The ears especially…"

That was it then. A journal. A journal that had devastating secrets, that could destroy the People's way of life. Somehow, Holly needed to find this journal and burn it.

"... But all that's not important right now. Right now, let's get this log off of you." Mabel smiled as her chattering came to a stop. She called out into the forest: "DIPPER! DIPPER, THERE'S A GIRL HERE THAT'S IN TROUBLE!"

Holly winced as Mabel kept shouting. Man, that girl had a set of lungs.

Soon, a boy stepped into the clearing. He was wearing a puffy vest with a red shirt underneath, shorts, and a hat with a tree on it. "Mabel, could you stop yelling? I think my eardrums are bleeding." He rubbed his ears as he walked over to the branch, and quickly assessed the situation. "Okay. Mabel, grab that end, and I'll lift this one. " The pair worked in tandem, slowly nudging the branch off Holly's legs. Once she was free Holly lifted herself up, trying hard to suppress the obvious sparks that would hop from wound to wound.

"Are you okay?" Mabel asked concern filling her eyes.

Dipper, on the other hand, seemed much more relaxed. "She's got magic, Mabel. She'll be fine." He then turned toward Holly. "If you need to refill, there's some old oaks downstream. You should be able to replenish your magic. Otherwise..." He scratched his head. "Uh, we'll just leave you alone."

Holly felt a nudge of guilt for wanting to destroy something that belonged to these children, kind as they were, but she stamped it down.

 _It's for the good of the People,_ Holly told herself. But she could not stop two words from slipping between her lips, aimed at her saviors.

"Thank you."

And then she was gone, her shield and the speed of her wings making it seem like she had disappeared.

As Holly sped off, Foaly once again started speaking into her ear.

"Well, that didn't go quite as planned."

Holly stifled a chuckle. "That's the understatement of the year."

Foaly laughed along, but it was without any feeling. The knowledge that their way of life was in jeopardy once again was jarring and not at all welcome.

"But for now," Holly continued after the fake laughter died off, "I'm going to need some help. Those kids, and probably their friends as well, will need to be mind-wiped, and that journal they were talking about needs to be destroyed."

"Too right." Foaly muttered. "I can't believe that this was happening under our noses! How many Mud Men have these children told?"

"It's a fiasco all right," Holly sighed, before realizing something. "I never finished my original mission."

Foaly stopped. And then slowly, he started to chuckle, bringing it up to a full laugh. Holly joined in, and the pair laughed and laughed as Holly zoomed out of ordinary, inconspicuous Gravity Falls.


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, second chapter! This one is mostly filler, with the introduction of a new character... Quick shout-out to everyone who read chapter 1. Thank you! And pleeeeease remember to review. I could really use comments and critique.**

Trouble Kelp was waiting for Holly when she stepped into the Ops booth. And he was not happy.

"Holly! What in Frond's name happened!?" He exclaimed, face red enough to rival Root's. "This mission was a disaster on a scale to rival Hamburg! The damage alone was monumental…"

Holly stood and waited until Trouble burned himself out. From her experience with Root, she knew it was the only way to get a word in. Eventually, Trouble started to calm down, allowing her to start her own side.

"Sir, if I may... My sighting may not mean much. It's clear these Mud Men already knew of the existence of the People."

"That's true." Foaly cut in. He was typing furiously on a plasma screen computer. "And the oddest part is, they haven't ever even had a run-in with the People. I've searched everywhere, and there's not a single mention anywhere of these kids."

"Didn't the girl mention a journal?" Trouble asked.

"It had information about the People." Foaly put in. "But we don't know what it looks like, who wrote it, where it is. Those Mud Men are the only ones who know anything about it."

"We'll need to find that, fast. I'll send out a team to bring them down to Haven." And with that, Trouble left to accomplish his task.

Holly turned to Foaly, still searching for any bit of information on the kids, and sighed. A chill crept up her spine, which was odd for the usually fearless captain. But she attributed that to her recent failure.

"How did this happen? Are we seriously knee deep in another case of our species' survival?"

Foaly laughed. "You'd get bored if it wasn't. And count yourself lucky. At least these kids aren't that likely to kidnap you."

Holly grinned, though it was laced with sadness. "Well, that's always a plus. I-"

She stopped. The chill was back, but stronger now.

Foaly frowned and faced Holly. "Are you okay?" He voiced, concerned.

"I-" Holly breathed deeply and started again. "I just feel strange. Like I'm being watched." And indeed Holly seemed to be on high alert, glaring at shadows as she scanned for a nonexistent threat .

Foaly felt a tiny chill go up his spine as well, but ignored it. "You're overreacting. Believe me, there is nothing in this room that I don't want here. I've made sure of that." He said with a touch of pride.

Holly smirked. "Oh, I believe you, Mr. Paranoia." But the tiny shiver wouldn't leave. "Still…"

"Holly, I never thought I'd be the one to tell you to calm down." Foaly chuckled as he turned back to her computer.

There was silence for several moments, until Holly abruptly stood.

"I'm going to ask Trouble if I can be on the team bringing those kids in." Holly said as she walked toward the door. "This is bigger than we think it is."

"How big can it get? It's the survival of our species!" Foaly called after her, but Holly was already gone.

With a sigh, he turned back to his computer. He was entirely focused, looking for any scrap of information that could help the LEP.

Which is why, when a triangular shadow flitted out the door, it passed unnoticed.


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm gonna put my A/N at the bottom today.**

Bill Cipher was happy. So very happy. After the sock opera fiasco, he thought he would never get a good opportunity to destroy the journal again. But now this! Oh, the LEP had no idea what they were getting into, but that suited him just fine.

Currently, Bill was drifting through the mindscape, looking for the perfect vantage point to watch it all go down. There was no way that he would miss this perfect, orchestrated chaos, with Captain Holly Short at its head. Thinking she was saving her species, but instead dooming the universe.

Ah! Here was a triangle with a beautiful view of the Pines' bedroom, where the fairy police would soon come bursting in. He settled down, grabbed some deer teeth to munch on, and waited. His time was close at hand.

* * *

Captain Holly Short peered out from behind a pine tree, spying on the building Foaly had said the children were staying at. The broken-down tourist trap looked barely fit for rats to live in, much less people. Behind the old hut, the two kids laughed and played as fireflies flitted about their heads, just out of reach from their grasping hands.

"That's them. I'm going in." Holly whispered into her mike. Shielded, she slipped out of the trees until she was standing directly in front of the children. The policeman in her was telling her to get a move on, while her soft side told her to wait. Stupid soft side.

Holly steeled her resolve and whispered to the night.

"I'm sorry kids, but the fairies won't fall tonight."

Then she buzzed up her shield.

"Catch it, Dipper!" Mabel pointed towards the tiny lightning bug flitting by her brother's head.

"I got it!" He lunged to grab the insect, laughing when he tumbled onto the grass. He chuckled as he stood up, ready to rejoin his sister…

...But someone was standing in front of him.

"Who are-"

" _Hello, Dipper."_ Dipper relaxed as the creature spoke. Such a beautiful voice, like little bells. That voice could do no wrong. Something in the back of his mind was screaming at him, probably the part that remembered the sock opera incident, but he ignored it. Holly's spell was too strong.

"Hey Dippingsauce, what's taking?" Mabel rushed over to join her brother, but was soon caught by the same spell.

" _Follow me, Mud m- children."_ Holly caught herself in time. Carefully leading the twins with the _mesmer_ , she guided them through the woods and onto a shuttle bound for Haven. Time to get to the bottom of this.

* * *

Dipper woke in the LEP's interrogation room.

That was strange. He knew about the fairies, but he had never talked to one. Except, of course, for that afternoon, when they had freed that elf from under a log.

"Um, Mabel?" Dipper twisted his head around to see his sister, also sitting in a steel chair. "What are we doing here?" A tinge of fear entered his voice when he noticed the cuffs around their wrists.

"I dunno. We were chasing fireflies, and then you were taking too long so I came over, and now we're here." Mabel seemed strangely calm despite the fact that they had been kidnapped, and were at the mercy of who- or whatever had brought them here. She was probably still thinking about fireflies.

A figure walked through the doorway, and into the bright interrogation lights. They were carrying something strangely familiar…

Holly's heart pounded as she walked up to the two children, but her training kept her face devoid of emotion. "Major Holly Short, of the Lower Elements Police force." She kept a calm exterior, but her emotions were in turmoil trying to decide whether to rage at these children or to let them go. They didn't look threatening, but...

"Hi!" Mabel gave the elf a big smile, made brighter by the lights glinting off her braces. "I'm Mabel, and this is Dipper."

Holly's face softened a bit. "Thank you for freeing me. There are plenty of Mud Men who wouldn't have been as nice as you."

"Aw, shucks." Mabel would have fanned her face if her hands weren't manacled to the chair.

"And Dipper, I believe this is yours?" Holly showed the two what she was carrying, and Dipper gasped as it was revealed.

Holly was holding Journal #3.

"No, no, no no _no_!" Dipper, previously calm, was now struggling at the bindings on the chair. "You can't take that journal, it's incredibly important!"

"Dipper!" Holly drew the book closer as Dipper lunged for it. "Calm down!" She shouted with a glare on her face. "Why do you need it so badly?"

Dipper stopped his struggles, seeing it was pointless. Panting, he thought up a one-word response for Holly's question.

"Protection."

"From what?" The glare slowly slipped off Holly's face, to be replaced with confusion.

"From everything in there. Just look," Dipper urged.

Slowly, Holly opened the book. The shining handprint on the front reflected her face back at her.

Holly scanned the pages as Dipper's commentary continued. "I've seen ghosts, zombies, and everything in between this summer. The book has information on all of them, and I probably wouldn't have survived without it."

Holly's confusion only grew as she looked at the pages in front of her. Sure, she had seen the gremloblin, but floating eyeballs? Height-altering crystals? And the Squash With a Human Face and Emotions was simply ridiculous.

"I know it looks silly, but it's all true." Dipper responded, as if he had read Holly's mind.

"Yeah!" Mabel burst in. "We've done tons of crazy stuff this summer."

Holly continued flipping through the pages, until she came to one that was strangely stiff. Turning it slower, so as not to damage the book, she gazed at the strange marks adorning the paper.

Bloodstains littered the page, which explained the stiffness. Instead of the usual neat writing, the notes were rough and barely readable, looking more like scribbles than anything. But the strangest part was the picture.

It was a triangle. That was the best way to describe it. A triangle with a single eye set in the middle of its… face? Considering there were no other features, that didn't seem quite the right word.

'Bill Cipher', according to the caption, looked as though he should have been silly. Something to laugh at. But the blood, crazed scribbles, and something else about the picture gave Holly the same chill that she had felt when talking to Foaly in the Ops booth.

"What about this thing?" Holly turned the book towards Dipper and Mabel, so they could see the picture.

Dipper's chattering stopped.

Mabel's smile shrank.

"What about him?" Dipper's tone now seemed guarded, and even afraid.

Holly though over her next words carefully, trying not to scare the boy. "I just want to know-"

"No. No you don't. You don't want to know anything about him or what he's done." Dipper's eyes flashed under the harsh lights, hiding thinly veiled emotion that threatened to burst out. "You don't want anything to do with Bill."

Holly considered the options, and decided to leave the siblings be. Whatever 'Bill Cipher' was, they were more likely to talk about it when Dipper had calmed down.

With a sigh, she closed the book and looked at the twins.

"Thank you for your information. Foaly will be in here shortly. He's just gonna make sure you guys are telling the truth about all this, okay?" With that, Holly left the room and headed to the Ops booth.

* * *

Holly rolled her eyes as she punched in the 14-digit passcode Foaly forced her to memorize each week. Inside, the centaur was watching the film from the interrogation room.

"You really spooked him, didn't you?" Foaly turned around to face his friend, curiosity sparking in his eyes. "What page did you show them?"

Holly turned to the scrawled messages on the Bill Cipher page, flipping the book around to show Foaly.

"I want to talk to Artemis," Holly said while Foaly skimmed the page. "He'd want to know about a breach in fairy security anyhow, never mind all of… this." She gestured to the journal in Foaly's arms.

"Uh huh." Foaly's eyes were glazed over, mouth slightly open as he read the page. He stayed this way until Holly snapped her fingers in front of his face.

"Hey! Messaging Artemis?" Holly chastised her friend with a half-amused face.

Foaly's head cocked to the side in confusion. "Wait, now? It's the middle of the night on the surface !" He exclaimed.

"Ah, Artemis is always up late. He's probably working on stealing the Mona Lisa or rigging the elections in America about now," Holly waved the question aside and walked to the wall of plasma screens.

Foaly shrugged and joined his friend by the computers. With a couple of taps on the screens, he contacted their friend and waited.

Seconds later Artemis's face came into view on his fairy communicator, clad in pajamas instead of his usual suit.

"Holly, Foaly." A short nod to each fairy sufficed for his greeting. "I must say, I am surprised by news at this hour. What is it that couldn't have waited until morning?" Artemis's speech was as sharp as ever, but something was off. A thin sheen of sweat was hanging on his brow, and his breathing was fast and short. Holly narrowed her eyes as she took in the small signs.

"Artemis, are you okay?" She peered closer to the screen. "You look like you've had a nightmare."

The genius closed his eyes and slowly steadied his breathing. "Yes, Holly. I did have a small nightmare, but it is of no concern. Now, what did you want to share with me?" Artemis's eyes snapped open, piercing blue staring through the screen.

Holly backed away from the screen and crossed her arms. "If you're sure… We found a breach in fairy security. Two kids, a girl and a boy. Both twelve."

Artemis was suddenly alert, all thought of sleep forgotten. "Is it contained? How did two children find out about the fairies?"

" _You_ found out about the fairies at that age." Foaly pointed out.

"Yes, but I had money, human connections, and a superior intellect on my side. It was hardly chance." Artemis pointed out to his centaur friend.

"Well, we found this in their possession," Holly pulled up the journal for Artemis to see, and flipped to various pages.

"It's got some info on the fairies, and all sorts of other strange creatures," Holly commented as Artemis studied each of the pages.

"And weirdest of all," Holly flipped to the Bill page and faced the camera. "When I showed them this page, they freaked-" Holly was cut short by the look on her friend's face. The blood had drained from his cheeks, leaving them even paler than usual. The elf could hear him forcibly taking deep breaths, instead of hyperventilating. Artemis retained his composure, but just barely.

"What's wrong?" Holly asked, now worried even more for her friend.

The seconds of silence ticked by, until Artemis drew enough breath for a response.

"I believe I've just met this creature."

 **I.**

 **AM.**

 **SO.**

 **SORRY.**

 **I'm sorry for not updating in more than a month because of writer's block/middle school/a thousand other things I can't name right now. I'm sorry that Holly and Dipper are kind of OOC this chapter because they're hard to write. I'm sorry that your first glimpse of Artemis in this fic was disheveled and not like he usually is (this will be remedied next chapter).**

 **But on the bright side, this chapter is long! Like, really long. This will feed your story cravings while I get writer's block again. Please review, and I'll try not to be so unreliable next time! :)**

 **(Also, to those who have been asking, this fic takes place between the 5th and 6th Artemis Fowl books (Lost Colony and Time Paradox), and sometime in between Sock Opera and NWHS in Gravity Falls).**


	4. Chapter 4

Artemis Fowl was dreaming.

He knew this because he definitely hadn't gone to sleep in a gargantuan barren gorge.

A huge canyon filled his dreamscape, devoid of life and color. The rocky cliffs stretching up to the sky were pitted with tunnels, some twice Artemis's height, some looking like mere shadows cast upon the stone. Artemis doubted there would be anything beyond those walls, providing he somehow managed to make it to the other side.

Seeing as there was nothing else to do, the teen sighed and started to walk. His eyes scanned the gray cliffs, gray sky… there was no color to be seen anywhere.

Except for one tiny dot on the horizon.

The teen stopped in his tracks and stared. Another person was standing, completely still, on the other side of the gorge.

Artemis peered closer. Correction: an elf, not a person.

"Captain Short?" The call echoed across the canyon, but Holly didn't respond.

He stepped forward, calling again. "Holly?"

The echo rang once, twice, three times. On the fourth repeat, Holly took off.

"Holly!" With a last call of her name, Artemis ran after her.

The captain followed a relatively straight line, but once Artemis started after she veered off into one of the tunnels dotting the cliffside.

Panting, the teen continued on, footsteps reverberating in the small space. The tunnels were engraved with tiny triangles, some of which had eyes set in the center. They gave Artemis the strange feeling of being watched.

Eventually, tree roots and moss started to line the tunnel instead, and an exit emerged from the pinprick of light in the distance. This time, Artemis emerged in a lush, colorful forest. But Holly was nowhere to be seen.

She had simply disappeared.

"What an odd dream," the teen murmured to himself. Putting aside the psychological tells, he felt that something was different. Something was wrong.

Artemis picked up a stone, lying near the dark tunnel entrance. He could feel the dents and bumps, the rough surface against his palm.

He could feel it.

"Sense of touch in a dream? That shouldn't even be possible," he whispered to the darkness nestled in the entrance.

"So how could it happen now?"

 _Snap._

Artemis turned around just in time to see the giant branch headed straight for him.

A yell built up in his throat, but before it could be released, the branch evaporated into thin air. Clean and untraceable. Just like water.

Slowly, the surrounding trees vaporised as well, until a triangle-shaped glade was left. Artemis slowly walked to the middle, unsure of how to proceed.

"Triangles," he murmured, "why the triangles?" The images in the tunnel, and now this?

"Well, I can answer that."

A bolt of lightning shot in front of Artemis, staining the ground at his feet an ugly black. From the patch, a single eyeball rose until it was at head height with the teen. Yellow bricks congealed around the eye, until a triangular 'body', complete with spindly black arms and legs, had formed. A bowtie materialized just below the eyeball, and the resulting creature laughed loudly.

"Wow! Didn't think I'd see you this soon." The creature pulled a thin top hat from thin air and tipped it to Artemis's head. "The name's Bill, smart guy. And you're Artemis Fowl the Second, heir to Europe's biggest criminal empire. Or, you were." Bill winked, if you can call it a wink with one eye. "Not so criminal anymore, from what I hear."

Artemis took a moment to organize his thoughts. This creature, Bill, was obviously the one controlling his dream, if the numerous pictures of him were anything to go by. If he was simply a figment of his imagination, it would make sense that he knew his name and about the Fowl Family's reformation. However, that didn't explain why Artemis had sense of touch in an ordinary dream. Following that, it was highly likely that Bill was a magical being with some sort of influence over dreams. But then why would this being come to him?

"It never hurts to ask, you know," Bill raised his eyebrow in a way that almost resembled a smirk. He sure could get a lot of expression out of one eye.

Artemis mentally chided himself. Of course Bill could read his thoughts, it was silly to not have thought of it earlier.

"Why, then? Why me?" Artemis asked, curious to know the answer.

"Oh, a little bird told me you'd be important later." Bill conjured up a bluejay, which flew around his finger, chirping a melody.

Suddenly, the bird squaked in pain, and its beak opened wide. The jay slowly turned itself inside out, blood dripping onto the grass and staining Artemis's shoes. Even then, the poor creature tried to fly, somehow still alive and conscious despite its state.

The teen felt bile rise to his throat, and covered his mouth. He was vaguely aware of Bill laughing, and Artemis wondered what kind of sadistic mind Bill had to actually enjoy the gruesome display.

He swallowed and tried to speak, though his eyes stayed on the bird. "Important to what?" Artemis's voice barely quivered, though he felt like he wanted to throw up.

Silently, Bill admired the kid's spunk. Normally, this was about the point where people woke up out of sheer terror, but Artemis stuck around just for some information that _might_ be important later. Curious and cocky.

He could use that.

"Oh, nothing much..." Bill did a one-eyed wink again, then flew far above the trees, growing in size as he did so. "But you'll find out soon enough. It's gonna be a real party!" His eye flared with red on the last word, and with a snap of his fingers, a blue spark leapt onto the nearest tree.

In an instant the tree was blazing, and the strange blue fire spread faster than any Artemis had ever seen. He cowered in the center of the triangular glade, trying to avoid the brunt of the blaze. Through the smoke, he heard Bill call out a few last words.

"Oh, and Artemis? Since I have a feeling I'll be seeing you more often, a word of advice: watch your back." The triangle flew higher in the sky, so Artemis could clearly see him above the smoke. "You never know who'll stab a knife in it."

Then a flurry of images: a pair of yellow eyes, a blue pine tree with a shooting star above it, chess pawns piled beneath a broken black king, all accompanied by a monstrous scream.

Artemis bolted awake just as his fairy communicator started to flash.

 **Heeeey I'm back! So here's Artemis's dream from last chapter. Hopefully him and Bill are suitably in character, I apologize if they aren't. Anyway, who's sad about the end of Gravity Falls? We've got one more episode people, that's it! It's sad to see the show go, but hopefully Alex will give it the satisfying end this masterpiece deserves.**

 **Please review, and see you next chapter!**


	5. Chapter 5

The room was silent once Artemis finished recounting his dream.

Foaly was the first one to make a noise, crinkling his tinfoil hat as he pulled it tighter on his head.

"I won't say I told you so," he spoke in a smug, albeit anxious tone.

Holly sighed, exasperated. "Yes, Foaly. We're all sorry for not believing you when you said, without any proof, that humans were developing methods to read the Peoples' minds." She gave the centaur a half-smile and turned away.

"Well technically Bill isn't human, and I don't believe he was created by humans. So your theory still needs work," Artemis chimed in.

"Shut up, Mud boy! I still say I was right." Foaly snorted and flicked his tail as he turned away from the screen.

"Anyway…" Holly motioned with her hand to continue.

"Yes, moving on," Artemis said. "I'm going to need to take a closer look at that book. You said you found it in the possession of two kids?"

"Yeah. They're in custody right now, actually. Foaly's going to go in to mindwipe them soon-"

"No," Artemis started. "So far, this book and the kids are the only source of information we have on Bill. Mindwiping them means losing one of those sources, and we can't risk that."

Holly faltered, thinking it over. "Not if we do a fine-tune wipe, right?"

Foaly turned back around and faced Holly. "Actually, Artemis is right. Since their information about the fairies is from the same source as their information on that… thing," he pointed to the blood splattered picture of Bill, "it's possible the wipe would accidentally erase some of their Bill memories as well. It's a slim chance, but definitely not unheard of. Even fine-tunes aren't perfect," he admitted, shrugging toward the screen.

Holly sighed. "All right. I'll talk to Trouble about letting them go. It isn't gonna be easy to convince him, though."

"First…" Foaly gestured at the door. "We have to tell the kids they'll be staying for a little longer than planned."

"Alright. Bye, Artemis."

"Goodbye, Holly."

"Hey! Helloooo! Um, can we come out now?"

"I don't think anyone's there, Mabel."

Mabel blew a raspberry and pretended to deflate in her seat. "This is boooring. When are we going to leave?"

She turned towards her brother, expecting an answer. But Dipper stayed quiet.

"Um...heh. Bro bro? You there?" Mabel called, but the only voice that came back to her was her own echo.

It was eerily silent for more than a few seconds.

Finally, Dipper began to hesitantly speak. "Mabel? I'm not sure we'll be able to-"

"Wait!" Mabel perked up at the sound of footsteps echoing in the hallway. Well, sorta footsteps. "Someone's coming!"

The steel door opened with a creak, and bright light flooded the room. Shadows flickered in the doorway, and in stepped a-

"Pony!" she gasped.

Foaly stopped in his tracks and turned towards the twins, ears flattened against his head.

"Wha- I am not a pony!" he sputtered. "I am a centaur, a much more noble and respectable being than those-"

"Yeah, yeah, just get your flank out of the doorway," a familiar voice called from the hall. Holly.

Foaly snorted and moved to allow the elf to pass.

"Hey!" Mabel squealed. "This means we get to go home now, right?"

Holly stopped and stared at the twins: one grinning widely, the other growing ever more suspicious of when they would actually be able to leave.

This wasn't gonna be fun.

"No. I'm sorry, but you can't leave yet-"

"I knew it." Dipper didn't sound particularly angry, but rather resigned. "You can't let us go."

Mabel's face fell. Her eyes darted from her brother to Holly, searching for an explanation.

"No- what? We're supposed to go now, right? Go home?" But neither Holly nor Dipper responded. It was answer enough.

Mabel struggled to hold onto her grin, even though the reality of the situation was beginning to set.

"Th-that's okay. It'll be okay!" She turned her gaze to the fairies. "I know you aren't bad people. You'll figure something out, I know you will!" Then she leaned back in her chair, smiling again.

She sounded so confident.

Holly sighed and turned to Foaly.

"We can't keep them here," she whispered to him.

The centaur snuck a glance at the twins before pulling Holly into a huddle. "I agree. But what other choice is there? It's not like we can let them go."

Holly thought, and it wasn't long before an idea flickered to life in her head.

"I have a plan," she whispered, "but Artemis might not like it."

"What are they talking about?" Mabel whispered to her brother. The fairies were too quiet to distinguish anything other than murmurs.

Dipper glanced over at his sister, but snapped his gaze back to the fairies. "I don't know, but I think we're about to find out."

The two were already turning around, both looking slightly apprehensive. Holly stepped forward, taking a breath as if steeling herself.

"Listen." She clapped her hand together, sending echoes bouncing off the steel walls. "We can't let you go, but we may have found a… safe house for you to stay in on the surface." She glanced at Foaly, but he just shrugged and looked away.

"Thanks for the support," she muttered, before turning back to the kids.

"See? I told you it'd be all right, Dipper!" Mabel looked like she would've given Holly a hug if she hadn't been shackled to the chair. Dipper just glanced at his sister before looking away.

"Hopefully." Holly tried her best to give an encouraging smile, then walked towards the door.

"I've got to go make arrangements, okay?" Holly started to back out of the room, but a shout from Mabel stopped her.

"Hey! Wait!" Holly turned around to see Mabel smiling at her, but this one was a little different from her other grins. Those had been drawn from pure childish energy. This one stemmed from gratefulness.

"Thanks for trying to help."

For a brief moment, Holly stopped.

Once the door was shut, Holly let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Artemis is going to kill us."

"I know."

 **Heeey I'm not dead!**

 **So, I know this chapter is a little rougher around the edges than the other. It was really hard to write, which is part of the reason for the wait. The next chapter is in the works, however, so it hopefully won't take as long to get out. Bear with me, guys! :)**

 **In other news, this story is almost up to 30 followers! Oh my gosh! That's almost a million! I love you guys so much for putting up with me.**

 **(If you think I'm going too slowly, you should leave a review about that *wink*)**

 **See you soon!**


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